The political and cultural climate that's arisen under the Trump administration has allowed research to be cut to the bone while expert wisdom is mocked and ignored. That's not good for science or tech. read more
Turns out that some genius dogs can learn a brand new word, like the name of an unfamiliar toy, by just overhearing brief interactions between two people. read more
It's at least the third ruling against the president's March executive order targeting state election processes.
Oceans absorb 90% of global heating, making them a stark indicator of the relentless march of the climate crisis. read more
President Donald Trump's aides began to make their case on Thursday for a $400 million White House ballroom before a commission that oversees federal building construction and said they are considering adding a second story to part of the West Wing as well. read more
Trump says US will take Greenland the 'easy way or hard way'
www.dw.com
... What did Trump say about Greenland?
"We are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not," the president told reporters at the White House while meeting with oil company executives.
"Because, if we don't do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we're not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor," he said.
Trump has previously said he would not rule out using military force to take the largely ice-covered island, which has a population of 57,000.
"I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way, but if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way," he said on Friday. ...
Trump offers protection for oil companies entering Venezuela
www.newsnationnow.com
... The White House said the plan is for oil companies to invest $100 billion in rebuilding Venezuela's oil infrastructure. Trump said his administration would guarantee that the companies would receive protection from the U.S. government.[emphasis mine]
"You have total safety. You have total security. One of the reasons you couldn't go in is you had no guarantees, you had no security, but now you have total security," Trump said. "You're dealing with us directly; you're not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don't want you to deal with Venezuela." ...
@#5
Fact Check: Has Donald Trump Filed for Bankruptcy Six Times?
www.fregolaw.com
... The first filing was all the way back in 1991, and the most recent one was in 2014. Is it true that he filed for bankruptcy six times? Yes, it is true, and here are the six times Donald Trump filed for bankruptcy:
1. Trump Taj Mahal (1991)
2. Trump Castle (1992)
3. Trump Plaza Hotel (1992)
4. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts (2004)
5. Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009)
6. Trump Entertainment Resorts (2014)
...
[links in the article ...]
... Trump: Power Restrained Only by 'My Own Morality' ...
Most Americans say U.S. should be world's moral leader; far fewer say it is
www.ipsos.com
...A significant gap has emerged between Americans' aspirations and current assessments regarding U.S. moral leadership, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll. While three in five Americans agree the U.S. should be the moral leader of the world, only 39% believe it actually is. This shift reflects a significant decline in perceived standing from a 2017 NPR/Ipsos Poll. ...
1. Americans see a gap between moral leadership aspirations and current state of affairs.
While 61% of Americans agree the United States should be the moral leader of the world, only 39% believe it actually is.
This represents a significant shift from 2017, when 60% believed America was the moral leader, marking a 21-percentage point
Partisan differences are pronounced: 64% of Republicans believe the U.S. is the moral leader, compared to only 24% of Democrats and 35% of Independents.
2. Half of Americans believe the U.S. is losing global influence, while even more say China has made gains.
Half of Americans (50%) say the U.S. has been losing influence over the past five years, compared with just 21% who say it has gained influence; 24% say its level of influence has stayed about the same.
Views on America's standing are deeply polarized by party: 72% of Democrats say the U.S. is losing influence compared to just 26% of Republicans.
Related ...
Trump administration mulls payments to sway Greenlanders to join US
www.reuters.com
... U.S. officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
While the exact dollar figure and logistics of any payment are unclear, U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The idea of directly paying residents of Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark, offers one explanation of how the U.S. might attempt to "buy" the island of 57,000 people, despite authorities' insistence in Copenhagen and Nuuk that Greenland is not for sale.
The tactic is among various plans being discussed by the White House for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the U.S. military. But it risks coming off as overly transactional and even degrading to a population that has long debated its own independence and its economic dependence on Denmark.
"Enough is enough ... No more fantasies about annexation," Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday after U.S. President Donald Trump again told reporters the U.S. needed to acquire the island. ...
Related ...
Justice Department sues Connecticut and Arizona as part of effort to get voter data from the states
www.scrippsnews.com
... Officials in Connecticut and Arizona are defending their decision to refuse a request by the U.S. Justice Department for detailed voter information, after their states became the latest to face federal lawsuits over the issue.
"Pound sand," Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes posted on X, saying the release of the voter records would violate state and federal law.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced this week it was suing Connecticut and Arizona for failing to comply with its requests, bringing to 23 the number of states the department has sued to obtain the data. It also has filed suit against the District of Columbia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department will "continue filing lawsuits to protect American elections," saying accurate voter rolls are the "foundation of election integrity."
Secretaries of state and state attorneys general who have pushed back against the effort say it violates federal privacy law, which protects the sharing of individual data with the government, and would run afoul of their own state laws that restrict what voter information can be released publicly.
Some of the data the Justice Department is seeking includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. ...
Security fears and dreams of minerals behind Trump's push to 'own' Greenland
www.nbcnews.com
... To hear President Donald Trump tell it, a push to take control of Greenland is a "national security" necessity, critical to reinforcing control of the Arctic against possible threats from Russia and China.
For America's allies and Greenlanders themselves, however, Trump's threats to seize the semi-autonomous Danish territory cut much deeper, and threaten to shatter the decades-old principle of Western defense cooperation.
But there may be little they can do to stop it.
"This is a threat that is completely appalling, to be honest," Aaja Chemnitz, one of two Greenlandic lawmakers in the Danish parliament, said in an interview Thursday. "You can't just buy another country, a people, the soul of Greenland," she added.
"Everybody in Greenland is discussing it, and many people are worried and concerned."
That alarm is shared across European capitals.
French President Emmanuel Macron accused the United States on Thursday of "breaking free from the international rules that it used to promote," while German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned the world risked descending into a "den of robbers, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want." ...
Trump revealed some of Friday's jobs data early in post the prior day
www.cnbc.com
... President Donald Trump in a social media post Thursday evening indirectly revealed data from Friday's market-moving nonfarm payrolls count, an apparent violation of long-standing federal policy on statistical releases.
In a Truth Social post around 9 p.m. ET, the president indicated that private sector payrolls had expanded by 654,000 for the full year of 2025, a total that would have included Friday's jobs count for December.
Office of Management and Budget policy prohibits executive branch officials from commenting on such releases early and in fact forbids public statements until 30 minutes after the release.
Presidents can be briefed on official jobs figures ahead of the release.
A White House official conceded, however, that "there was an inadvertent public disclosure of aggregate data that was partially derived from pre-released information. The White House is accordingly reviewing protocols regarding economic data releases." ...
While Trump's post would not allow traders to calculate the exact payrolls figure because of lack of data on revisions, they could have gleaned a rough estimation of the figure and possibly ruled out a December job-loss scenario that would have spooked markets. ...
@#2 ... given the current glut on the oil market.
Lowering prices is not in Big Oil's wheelhouse. ...
Yeah.
Big Oil is looking for a profit.
But the current oil glut has lowered the cost of oil to the point that is seems to be no longer profitable to find new sources of oil.
Oil's Coming Glut May Be Setting Up the Next Supply Shock
fortworthinc.com
... Wall Street banks, energy analysts, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) broadly agree that global oil inventories are building and will continue to rise into early 2026 " typically the weakest demand period of the year.
Forecasts differ on the size of the surplus, but the consensus view is bearish. Many analysts expect oil prices to average below $60 per barrel in 2026 as excess supply weighs on the market.
The findings were detailed in an Oilprice.com market analysis.
Still, several forecasters believe 2026 could mark the end of the imbalance. Goldman Sachs and others have suggested it may be the last year the market works through a glut before fundamentals tighten again. ...
Switchfoot - Meant To Live (2003)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
This is the first song on Switchfoot's album The Beautiful Letdown. This song is about life and the choices that we make that may lead to regret.
[Verse 1]
Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, fly
[Chorus]
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
[Verse 2]
Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we've been livin' with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken
[Chorus]
Ah-we were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
[Bridge]
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than this world's got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life, yeah
[Chorus]
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more (We were meant to live)
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live (We were meant to live)
We were meant to live
...
Related ...
OpEd: Donald Trump goes nuclear in the GOP's war on science (July 2025)
www.salon.com